Landscapes of the Sacred (1)
A main idea of Lane's is his list of axioms:
1) Sacred place can be tread upon without being entered
2) Sacred place chooses- we don't decide what is sacred
3) Ordinary is made extraordinary through rituals
4) Universal and local
I found these intriguing; I partially agree with Lane in that we cannot decide what is sacred by ourselves. Something usually happens at a place to make it sacred and more then one person has experienced it. On the other hand, there are some places that some people might say are sacred and others will say it is not. Not all sacred places will have a religious context. It is possible for one to tread upon a sacred place without entering it. I would think that the inside of most sacred places are truly what is needed to be guarded in a sense. Not just anyone should walk into a sacred place without understanding its meaning, even if it isn't that significant to you.
Most sacred places, at one point or another, were "just a place". It was made significant through people practicing rituals or ceremonies they deemed appropriate to perform at that certain place. Someone could walk by a tree and see it to be just another tree; someone else could walk by or purposely go to it to pray. That average tree has such become sacred to the person or people who use it to pray and connect to a higher power. This idea connects to the last axiom, universal and local. There are well known sacred places across the globe and many people will travel thousands of miles to go to such places. By word of mouth and personal experience, a place is known amongst thousands of people as sacred. There are also places not as well known across the world, but to certain communities they are just as sacred as the universal ones. Local places can sometimes have more of an impact on one's spiritual journey because it is close to their everyday lives.
1) Sacred place can be tread upon without being entered
2) Sacred place chooses- we don't decide what is sacred
3) Ordinary is made extraordinary through rituals
4) Universal and local
I found these intriguing; I partially agree with Lane in that we cannot decide what is sacred by ourselves. Something usually happens at a place to make it sacred and more then one person has experienced it. On the other hand, there are some places that some people might say are sacred and others will say it is not. Not all sacred places will have a religious context. It is possible for one to tread upon a sacred place without entering it. I would think that the inside of most sacred places are truly what is needed to be guarded in a sense. Not just anyone should walk into a sacred place without understanding its meaning, even if it isn't that significant to you.
Most sacred places, at one point or another, were "just a place". It was made significant through people practicing rituals or ceremonies they deemed appropriate to perform at that certain place. Someone could walk by a tree and see it to be just another tree; someone else could walk by or purposely go to it to pray. That average tree has such become sacred to the person or people who use it to pray and connect to a higher power. This idea connects to the last axiom, universal and local. There are well known sacred places across the globe and many people will travel thousands of miles to go to such places. By word of mouth and personal experience, a place is known amongst thousands of people as sacred. There are also places not as well known across the world, but to certain communities they are just as sacred as the universal ones. Local places can sometimes have more of an impact on one's spiritual journey because it is close to their everyday lives.
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